Of Flowers, Pain, and Consolation
by Scribbler A
Summary: What happens when you're generally sick of almost everything? You mope around, of course. But then again, a constantly grumpy hyperactive knucklehead doesn't seem to bode well with people, especially with a certain blonde kunoichi. And she's going to fix it, one way or another.


**Disclaimers:** I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does, and I don't plan on stealing from him.

**A/N:** Hello! This is my first time in writing a Naruto fan-fic, as I've always been immersed in the Evangelion realm, but in these passing few months, I've been very attracted to a lot of Naruto fanfics, especially ones centered around this pairing. That being said, please go easy on me, with it being my first try and all. With nothing else to add, enjoy the first chapter!

* * *

**Notes regarding the Story:** This story takes place shortly after the Gaara Retrieval Part in the story, and before any major Akatsuki arc. It's somewhere in between. After that, the plot completely branches off from original canon, and I'll be taking the 'adventure' part of this story less detailed and concentrated, as this is more of an emotional romance story, so do take note about that. Other than that, the characters may get a little bit OOC, as you will find out as we go on, as they are adjusting to Naruto's new traits and characteristics that I've added, but I'll do it one part at a time, so as not to be told that he's being too overly OOC. So yeah, I'll try to show my version of Naruto as we know more about his hidden side. Until then, I'll be glad if you follow along.

* * *

**Scribbler A presents**

**A new Naruto story**

**"Of Flowers, Pain, and Consolation"**

**-Enjoy-**

Not only once had he felt that his mask of indifference was shattering. Yet he held on. He persevered, to no avail. Soon, everyone would know who he was—not an exuberant and hyperactive ninja, but a dark and self-depreciating teenager.

More than once, he felt like smacking Sakura's head upside down instead of laughing it off whenever she had hit him for asking her out. Really, he was growing tired of the 'asking her out' routine already, only doing it for the sake of keeping up the mask of a stubborn guy he don himself with. Naruto was sharp enough years ago to have deemed the rosette as a lost cause, for her eyes were still and would probably forever be on the traitorous Uchiha.

The young Uzumaki strolled down the Hokage monuments in a solemn pace, the mild gale stirring parting away the blonde's locks, now as long as to partly obscure his eyes when he didn't have his hitai-ate on since he didn't bother keeping it short after his return to the village with the Toad Sage, the golden hues painting the sky a breath-catching yet melancholic scene. The only way for the Konoha shinobi to get rid of all the surfacing hows and whys in his head was to take a seat on one of the monuments and calm down, to think; he was sure it would work again like it always had.

As he got near to his favorite spot above the head of the Yondaime's monument, there was surprise, or more of a shock, awaiting him. He wasn't alone out here, not this time.

The silhouette of a young kunoichi sat there, her eyes a hollow blue as she gazed at the setting sun. She was blond, her hair tied back to a ponytail reaching down to the small of her back and a particularly long lock of hair falling on the side of her delicate face. She was dressed in a standard kunoichi outfit, except that instead of the usual color of black hers was in a deep shade of purple. Naruto approached her with slight caution.

"Hey Ino," he greeted her in what he believed was nonchalant enough to avoid suspicion.

It took her a few seconds to register a voice calling out to her, but when she did, she had to resist raising an eyebrow at her unexpected guest. "Naruto, what are you doing here?" She asked.

"Just…taking a walk, I suppose." He answered, and knew very, very soon that it wasn't a very wise reply. Not at all.

"Out here on the Hokage monuments, of all places?" She quirked her eyebrows as she studied the young man with a hint of amusement sparkling in her previously empty blue eyes. The hyperactive ninja was taking a walk out here at this ungodly hour. It was a possibility, especially since this was Naruto she was talking about, but she knew a lie when she heard one.

"Yeah… What about you?" The orange-loving shinobi asked eagerly, silent pleading for her to not read too much into things, which wouldn't do him any good at all.

"Oh, just…thinking," she replied hesitantly.

"What about?" The Uzumaki sat himself near her. Not too far away, not too close to cause discomfort. Just enough for a little personal space in between. Besides, anything now was better than being bombarded with questions he dreaded to answer.

"I don't know. I…" She started, only for her reluctance to get the better of her. Seriously? Here she was, confiding in on Naruto, of all people, when even her closest friends and sensei didn't know about it? There must've been something wrong with the young Yamanaka, but she still let it slip. Insane or not, she felt like she needed to get this out of her system, as soon as possible, and that was right now. She just hoped her conversation partner wasn't one to reveal secrets, as much as he was a loudmouth.

She glanced back briefly at the young ninja, curious to see if he was still waiting, in silence, for her to continue where she left off. He was.

"Well," she started with renewed vigor. "I was just thinking about my role in Konoha, how everyone seemed to have a role that fits them, and I was wondering what mine was…"

Naruto kept his keep blue orbs trained on the girl sitting approximately a feet away from her as she went on about how uncertain she was with her future, how she seemed so lost compared to her comrades, how they were striving to accomplish something when she didn't even have a specific goal in mind to work towards. It startled him that Ino had all this bottled up inside her all along, never speaking about them to anyone, never showing it to the world as she pressed on with her life, much like him. Perhaps everyone was bound to have a fair share of troubles in their lives.

* * *

The blond Yamanaka was just done with her rants not long after sunset, and she had felt exhausted all of a sudden; exhausted but happy. Exhausted, because she had been the one talking in the one-sided conversation, her companion simply listening intently without as much as a blink as she raked through all her worries in her mind. Happy, because the talk had noticeably helped her get out of brooding too much into these things. She finally felt free again.

Noticing that the blonde kunoichi had no intention of continuing the conversation and was currently content looking up at the glittering night sky, the jinchuuriki allowed himself to divert his gaze elsewhere, following her line of sight to where the serene moon hung in the high night sky. Truly, it was an amazing sight.

Feeling like the silence had dragged on for a substantial amount of time, he turned back to his friend.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked warily, unaware of how she would respond to his silence at both their preceding conversation and the one in between before he had even bothered speaking up. She flashed him a kind smile instead.

"I feel much better. Thanks, Naruto." She inched in closer and hugged him, and just as sudden as her action was, she pulled apart quickly, leaving a much flabbergasted demon container staring at her with wide eyes and a hanging jaw.

Ignoring her friend, she went back on an unanswered question nagging at the back of her mind. "Now, are you going to tell me why you're up here or do I make you talk?" She asked, throwing in an extra mix of jest in her tone.

Immediately, the jailor of the nine-tailed fox snapped away from his forming daydream, recalling the reason why he was up here as well; he wasn't in any better condition than Ino, to be honest. But he couldn't tell her that. Hyperactive ninja and sulking just don't match, surely she would notice that.

"No particular reason." He lied badly, though Ino had to at least give him credit for the quick response though. Yes, she does notice when he occasionally lied to her or her comrades, that much she could tell, but she had never felt any harm coming from his lies, that was why she had never bothered digging deeper than necessary. Besides, she thought he had to have a good reason for lying to them. Yet tonight, he just sucked at it, clearly not giving any efforts in covering up the trail of suspicion he left behind. Something was wrong with him, she just knew it.

"Are you sure?" She prodded. Maybe with a little bit of that, it would make him talk.

Obviously not.

"Yeah," he answered, his voice slightly more confident and harsh. There was no making him talk. That was his answer.

"If you're sure," she shrugged, but at the same time, the exact opposite of her spoken reaction occurred in her head. The man before her, although hard to admit, had aided her in matters that had, in a lack of a better term, haunted her for some time. Now, he seemed to be facing troubles of his own, and she wasn't going to sit back and watch him struggle with it. Because she was Ino Yamanaka, that was why, and Ino Yamanaka never failed to return a favor. But, that was that, and this was another matter; she needed to wait for the right moment, as obviously now was not the fitting one.

They sat there for a minute or so, basking in the somewhat comfortable silence around them, before the Yamanaka had realized how late it was into the night already. Getting up and dusting away the dirt from her skirt, she bid her blond friend farewell, and after receiving a curt nod from him, she disappeared down the path towards the village, a plan already forming in that diabolical mind of hers.

Naruto, on the other hand, was rather at a loss of word. On a relieving side note, he had helped her friend in something he wasn't aware of until now, and she had been very grateful for it. That, he was happy about. But, her curiosity still scared him a lot. She was treading on dangerous grounds now, especially after she, more or less, figured that something was bothering him, and she was right. This was going to be…as his friend had often said it, troublesome, for the young jinchuuriki from now on.

He sat there, so lost in his own thoughts that it had nearly slipped his mind. For all the worries he had, there was a mission, assigned by Tsunade, waiting to be accepted and completed tomorrow. With a slight bit of reluctance, seeing that he, in fact, did enjoy chilling out at one of his favorite places, namely on top of the Hokage monuments, and clear his head, he got up and set towards his own abode, the cold breeze softly dancing behind each step he took, as the night dragged on in quiescence.

* * *

Mellow specks of sunlight filtered through the incommodious room as a groggily-navigated hand protruded out from the lump of blanket on the bed, reaching towards an antiqued clock on a nearby night stand. Firmly grasping its target, it shot back into the lump, and with limited light and the drowsiness still numbing his senses, the blonde barely noted, with squinted eyes, that it was already well over the time of rendezvous for his assigned mission.

"I'M LATE!" He squeaked the second the lump of blanket exploded into the air, leaving a frantic ninja darting around his room to prepare for the necessities of the day.

After a minute or so, he was fully equipped and ready to depart. With his kunai and explosive tags unintentionally swapped and relocated to entirely inappropriate and absurd places, and the fact that he had his combat sandals on but had worn it on the wrong side, he wasn't exactly 'ready'. But he would have to worry about that later. Tripping all over the place was better than an enraged Tsunade. He shuddered at the image.

In another minute, Naruto had leapt roof from roof towards the Hokage's office in full speed, hoping that the Baa-chan would be kind enough to let his tardiness slide this time around. Hey, a man can dream, can't he?

Though as he came through the door into the office, panting, out of breath, and most importantly, still hoping against hope that the lady Hokage would be a different drunken old lady this time, a fist connected with his gut and sent him crashing out of the room. The newly-added cracks on the wall was obvious in showing that, no, Tsunade had no intention in being a 'different drunken old lady' today.

"NARUTO, YOU'RE LATE!" Her bellow of rage came soon after that. The blond shinobi could barely suppress a muffled groan as he extracted himself from the shattered wall behind him.

"Sorry, I kind of overslept." The blonde held up a hand in apology while his trademark foxy grin slipped onto his face. That didn't help the almost murderous look on the woman's face as she strode back to her seat.

"Never mind," she sighed and massaged her temples wearily with one hand, the other reaching towards one of the files piled on her desk. She threw it to the approaching shinobi.

"Missing nin?" The two words caught his attention as he pried open the contents.

"Relax," Tsunade waved at him dismissingly. "It's not Sasuke. You do realize that there are _other_ missing nins other than him, right?"

Naruto's heart took a plummet. Of course he knew; his snake 'friend' certainly wasn't an easy one to track down, it would take them much more than that to try and locate him. Convincing him back to Konoha was an entirely otherworldly task for them.

"Of course," he whispered.

"The profile of the missing nin you're going to track is in there." She pointed at the report in Naruto's hands.

"Yashima Ukon. Age about thirty years old," the blond ninja began to read. "Went rogue when he was out on a mission. Estimated age when he went rogue was twenty year old. That means he had been a missing nin for a ten whole years then. Last spotted on the west outskirt of the Land of Fire, in the woods just after the village of Wood."

"We're sending you over to scout, and to possibly capture him if the chance ever so presents itself," the lady Hokage added as the young shinobi deposited the file in his inner jacket pocket.

"What are the risks of this mission?" Naruto asked, momentarily dropping his cheeky façade to assess his situation. Tsunade was none the more stunned by the change of behavior in what she saw as her little brother figure.

"Considering the target, the risks are fairly high." She answered after some consideration. "You may very well be facing a Jounin, or High-Chunin level ninja in his territory."

"Alright," the blond jinchuuriki nodded. "So, who are my teammates in this mission?"

Tsunade looked perplexed at his question. Surely, he must've read the add-on notes in his report. Her temper flickered slightly at the possibility that perhaps he had completely ignored the notes all together. Reading was never one of his likes, anyway. "Naruto, this is a solo mission." She said.

His face paled almost immediately. "Wait, what?!" He screamed.

Before he could go on and protest about the absurdity in dealing with a missing nin with close to jounin-level skills alone, the none-so-pleased Hokage cut him off with a sharp leer, freezing him on the spot. She cleared her throat before reiterating what she had written in particular in said report.

"Bringing more than a one-man cell would ruin whatever chances of ambushing him when he least suspected it, therefore bolstering the success in reprimanding him. The more there are on the mission, the higher chances that he would notice that we are onto him, and therefore be able to plan for a swift escape." She explained in a professional tone, gaining a nod from the shinobi standing across from her.

Whatever that Naruto had wished to say died in his throat after the explanation. The baa-chan had indeed made sense. But how would he be able to stand his own against someone of his target's caliber? Even worse, that Ukon guy was suspected to possess Jounin-level skills. That was a troubling thought for the Konoha ninja. But then again, the Hokage had specifically given the mission to him, not to some promising Jounin, not to some Anbu, but _him_; she must've had her reasons for sending him.

With a knowing nod and a wave of his hand, and also surprisingly less resistance than usual from the young Uzumaki, he exited the room and made way for his home. A little more preparation would most certainly be welcomed with the mission he currently had on his hands.

* * *

It didn't take him long to leave the safeguards of the leaf village and leap into the vast field blanketed with trees and greenery. Everywhere he could sense the distinct feel of Konoha patrol ninjas' chakra, just bordering between the edge of the forest and the village itself. Soon, the feel, slowly but surely, diminished into only tiny lingering bits before disappearing completely, proving that he was far way out of his beloved village already. He began turning west after a notable junction to where he knew the Village of Wood was located at. He had sometimes been requested to complete a mission at the particular village, or even somewhere close to it. So he was fairly alarmed where to turn and go to head towards his destination.

After a considerable forty minutes of travel, the large sign hung loosely on a nearby windmill a few ten meters away was indication enough that he was now very close. "WELCOME TO THE VILLAGE OF WOOD." The sign read.

"Not very subtle, are they?" The blond shinobi noted for the umpteenth time coming across the…_thing_ that just screamed out 'INVASION!' all over. Were they so sure of their village's combat prowess, or were they just stupid? Frankly, he didn't know which was worse.

Shrugging as he landed before the gates into the village, he walked in a much more sedate pace. Not like it was going to risk his mission failing. If the Ukon guy was still there, he would still most probably be there, doing god knows what. But if he were to leave already, there was no way of tracking him down. So, he was taking this nice and easy.

Also, his stomach was growling all the way since he entered the place, promptly reminding him that, for all his freaked out recklessness in the morning, he hadn't had breakfast yet, which explains the famished feeling strongly gripping his whole being and preventing him from thinking straight. Naruto Uzumaki was not known for skipping out on meals.

He found a rather plain tea house and sat down, ordered something to eat, and made sure he kept a low profile while doing it. A successful ninja meant a ninja who would not blatantly give out signals to the whole village telling them that he was tracking down a missing nin. Nobody needed to know that he was now out on a mission to capture someone who, maybe, had skills and abilities way above him. Now it seemed more and more like a suicidal mission to him as he thought about it.

For the next half an hour, his hands were full with dumplings as he filled his stomach to the brim with food. Boy, he could feel the weight of his frog wallet decreasing significantly already. Then, it was time to move on. He pushed himself up silently, left a considerate amount of money on the table top, and scurried across the averagely-sized village, careful to avoid being seen by any oncoming villager, to the edge of the place where the other exit lied at.

This was it. Across from there, he would either probably be meeting a life and death situation, or nothing at all. On a side note, he was quite relieved that he was on his own this time, for the intense expression marring his face right now would have certainly raised suspicion as to if the Naruto they've always known was a fake, since he was not the same hyperactive knucklehead as he was known to be.

The blonde steeled his heart, and leapt into the woods.

* * *

His heart felt like bursting out of his chest now, but he forced it to slow down as he jumped from tree branch to tree branch, making the least noise he could manage while heightening his senses. Let it be known that with the nine-tailed fox inside his body, further heightening of senses would let him be on par with an experienced Inuzuka out on the field. And that was good enough for him.

Not even another minute had passed when he felt a disturbance in the chakra field in the eleven o'clock direction. He stopped completely on his foot as he began analyzing the cause. A lone chakra signal, and an at least ten meters wide field of chakra. So it was a pre-setup genjutsu trap. His target was a smart one, provided that he had been on the run for ten years, he knew how to execute caution in case he was targeted. Too bad the genjutsu was not intricate enough to be hidden from the Konoha jinchuuriki. He wasn't an expert at that peculiar field of ninja studies, but he sure as hell was sensitive to chakra.

'Now, how do I approach him?' Naruto thought to himself while making sure he had his presence concealed. Going toe to toe with him would be the worst decision he would want to make, for their gap in experience was going to make a big difference when it came to one-on-one combat. The only choice he had was stealth; he was going to outwit him. As for how, he had a vague idea, maybe.

The young shinobi made a ram seal and with a poof, a clone appeared beside him, nodding his head at its creator once, before dashing off to intercept its target while the original stayed behind. He was going to observe for now, get more information on his opponent before he could concoct a plan to bring him down. Until then, he had left his clone with the instructions on what to do. He just hoped it worked.

The clone stepped into the field of genjutsu as soon as he landed on where he thought was giving off the target's chakra signals, immediately noticing several summons of various sizes. An ape, a tiger, an oversized hawk, a twelve-foot long boa snake, and surprisingly, a large toad. That didn't scare the clone though, for he knew the source to these trickeries to the eyes.

"Kai!" He yelled as he made a hand sign, injecting streams of chakra into the web of chakra interlaced around each other that blended with the surrounding and disrupting it entirely and breaking it, and a glass-breaking shatter resounded before the summons disappeared out of nowhere. The woods were quiet once again, before soft laughter broke through from the rustling leaves ahead of the Naruto clone. A scrawny man stepped out from the foliages, revealing his unruly black hair coming to a stop at his shoulders. He had the leaf village's hitai-ate on his forehead, but the symbol on the forehead protector was crossed out by something sharp, most probably a kunai. His eyes were black, with a tinge of brown, but it held a blank look, a look screaming of the cruelty life had brought him, and his outfit was no better. A worn and tight black shirt over an old green vest encompassed his skinny but tall figure, and his black cargo pants had scratches and tears everywhere. Even the blue combat sandals he wore had suffered enough damage that most ninjas wouldn't have bothered using it anymore, much less keeping it around.

"It has been long since someone was able to see through my genjutsu, though most who tracked me down were pathetic excuses of a promising ninja." His voice was cracked and low, a sign of weariness from all his life of running and escaping. "You seem to be different from the others though." He added.

The Naruto clone kept his mouth shut as he took hold of his supposed target. This was the guy he was after? This scrawny and bony guy? He could barely lift a rock with how he looked! Then his paranoia hit him again. What if it was just a deception, meant for lowering his foes' guard so he could easily eliminate them. Breaking away from his thoughts, he glanced at the man before him again. He just looked so weak!

Ukon noticed his assailant's internal turmoil and couldn't help but hide a smirk under his pale face. Most had a hard time believing that he was _the_ Yashima Ukon, the missing nin that had eluded Konoha nins for ten whole years. He found out years ago that looking like a weak old guy was better than pretending to be tough. It helped raise the self-doubt in his pursuers, and it made killing them easier as well, though some couldn't even get through his genjutsu, much less capture him alive.

Naruto clone, on the other hand, was, as expected from the cunning missing nin, having a hard time registering the truth. Oh well, only one thing to do when you're utterly confused.

"Are you Yashima Ukon?" He asked.

* * *

To say that the Konoha missing nin was shocked was a total understatement of an understatement. Never had he actually met someone who would just ask an enemy a question that would most probably earn him back a lie to conceal the truth. Even worse was how he had acted when he was still in his state of bewilderment; he nodded. He **nodded** at him. That was probably the most idiotic thing to do in the history of stupid ninjas.

"Well, that should solve a lot of problems already." The Naruto clone scratched his head and whispered, unexpected that he would actually receive such a straight-forward answer. His words earned him a glare from his opponent in mid face-palm.

Deciding that enough was enough, Ukon clicked his tongue in condemn. The clone instantly dropped into his fighting stance, feeling the animosity coming from the skinny guy that used to look all but strong. Now he looked menacing, for a new presence and aura came flooding in around him without prior notice; the smell reminded him of blood and death.

The Naruto clone made another ram seal, before a dozen of Narutos accompanied him. The plan at the moment was to test out his Taijutsu skills before continuing to other aspects in his supposedly hidden arsenal of skills. They had decided to try and dig out any form of weaknesses that he had, or else victory would be naught for the blonde. After all, the success of the mission depended solely on his luck and his opponent's unwitting cooperation this time around.

The twelve clones charged at the man in an array of kicks and punches, to which he dodged and swiveled around them in relative ease. Once or twice, he'd find an opening in the clones' movements and launch a quick jab to a vital spot, eliminating the clone in one swift hit. It was apparent that the man held his own grounds in Taijutsu.

Soon enough, the dozen of clones were wiped out as fast as they were summoned. The first Naruto clone stood across the field, contemplating whether or not he should send in another batch of clones, all while shuffling through the memories of his previously defeated ones, when one particular thought the seventh clone had before he was pulverized intrigued him. Raising his arms once more, he formed the ram seal and a dozen of clones came forth in a puff of smoke, earning a scowl from the skinny man before them.

"Are you going to just send clones to do your job, you coward?" He scoffed, but the Naruto clone simply shrugged at him as the battle all but repeated itself. This time though, there was a vast difference compared to the first try.

The Naruto replicas moved in planned coordination, planting a strike at his chest, move away, a few kunais to the right, move away, a low kick aimed for his legs, move away, a palm trying to dislocate his right shoulder, move away, a high kick going for his head, and then move away again.

Yashima Ukon could still dodge them, with lesser ease than he would admit, but the mind-boggling thing was, he could not land even a hit on a _single_ one of them. When he thought his fist should have connected to a clone's sternum, shattering the entirety of his ribs, his target would leap back in time to render him into leading a wild goose chase; all the while he had to deal with the other eleven at the same time. It was frustrating him to no ends.

The only clone who stood away from the duel smirked. His seventh copy in the previous group had somehow miraculously noticed a pattern in his Taijutsu. On a closer observation, it was beginning to show as well. His target's hand-to-hand combat skills revolved around being the passive attacker in a very short-ranged fight, as he would study the movements of his opponent and find an opening to strike with, all while luring the foe closer to him. But if you put a good distance with him while you fight, preferably using hit-and-run tactics, it would make his style completely useless.

Having had enough with the shenanigan that was his opponent's clumsy Taijutsu that had somehow make him look like a complete idiot, the frustrated man focused chakra on his left foot before springing upwards, swiftly dodging an upcoming uppercut aimed to knock him out, his hands flashing through a series of hand seals before he sucked in a deep breath.

"Katon:Endan!" He called out before a large fireball materialized out of nowhere and came searing down, erupting onto the ground with a mighty shake as the clones were obliterated in a matter of seconds. The first clone, sensing the sudden severity of the situation, charged into the fray as his hand came to an all too familiar ram seal again, but before he was able to push his chakra into it, he felt an almost overbearing presence behind him.

Before he could turn around, the cracked and low voice called from behind again.

"Fūton: Shinkkūken!"

* * *

The young jinchuuriki was caught off guard when he felt the memories of his clone coming back to him, indicating that his replica had already been disposed of. Now that the guy knew it was a clone, he would probably try to find him as quick as possible, disposing him to avoid the blonde from falling back and calling for back up. Though his plan of exploiting his opponent's weaknesses before confronting him had been ruined, another idea had hit him as soon as he realized that the missing nin was coming after him. It was time for _him_ to set a trap.

But, the problem was, Naruto was never good at projecting any type of genjutsu. Well, except maybe for one. He had learnt it from Jiraiya on his two-year trip, when he had unknowingly fell for a simple genjutsu trick from an enemy and needed rescuing from his sensei. After that, he was subjected to a harsh berating before the Ero-sennin had tried to strengthen the boy in terms of detecting and applying genjutsu, the former going fairly well due to his sharp senses, but the latter to no actual avail bar the fact that he _did_ actually learn a D-ranked genjutsu.

The Konoha shinobi scanned his surrounding, taking note that his pursuer-turned target was beginning to close in to where he was, and went through the snake seal, concentrating his chakra before moving on to a rat seal. At there, he yelled out the genjutsu's name in barely a whisper.

"Magen:Narakumi no Jutsu!" He willed the jutsu to lock onto the chakra signal of the missing nin as he set up the trap at a four-meter radius around him, only to be activated if the specific person with the correct chakra signal had stumbled upon it.

Oh boy, was that guy going for a trip into his worst nightmares.

* * *

Yashima Ukon gritted his teeth as he leapt tree from tree in a speed that betrayed his scraggy body, pushing most of his concentration towards sensing his prey-turned pursuer, or he thought the blond brat was running from him. He had found nothing for the minutes of his search, sans the unusual silence in the woods ever since his search; nothing was this quiet before. Not since his first arrival at the place.

Then, just as sudden, a miniscule of chakra flickered not far from him. In an almost sadistic sense of triumph, he all but figured that the stupid blonde had slipped up; he had won. The battle would be over in a split second as soon as he had seen the rotten excuse of a ninja. Nobody ridiculed him without paying the price, especially not when he had thought that he had had him with that particular wind-based jutsu of his, when it was a dirty shadow clone all along.

Oh, he would pay. That was for sure.

With renewed anger and humiliation clouding his mind and his thoughts, he was too late; or rather, he didn't have an ample amount of time to notice the small speck of disturbance around him, and in the span of a blink of an eye, gone was the lush green background, the overbearing silence of the previously quiet forest, in its place was somewhere he recognized immediately.

'How?' He paled a few shades of white.

Instead of green leafy vegetations of a forest ground, his worn ninja sandals met a set of jagged cobblestone, lining up into a path stretching on to what looked like a village. Only, the air was dense with smoke, hot to the touch, the sky a burning crimson as the man stared up at his worst nightmare; his once village on fire, the houses and accommodation burning with the ferocity of the nine-tailed fox itself. The cries of help and howls of despair rang constantly in his skull, villagers –men, women, the elderly, children– scrambled about with a look that spoke of death and doom itself. To his left and right, they were getting killed, getting slaughtered, one by one, in such wicked and practiced ease, by a band of ninjas, ninjas garbed in only black and grey, moving around in flamboyance and arrogance, and on their forehead, he almost snarled in equal disdain. The leaf symbol.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he noticed a small shadow by the edge of the burning village, in an all too vague but all too familiar spot. He blinked, and found himself staring down at the small shadow a few foot away from him now, holding his slightly seared pillow in a tight hug while hiding behind a house. He knew this boy all too well. Short and unruly ebony hair, black eyes intermixed with a little bit of brown, short and scrawny, his eyes bearing fear and confusion, for he was still too little to understand what was going on, why everyone was screaming out their lungs, why some of them was smeared in a sea of red liquid and remained stationary on the ground, why the village was a burning mess. It was Yashima Ukon himself.

The much older one watched with hatred and uneasiness. Why was he seeing this? What happened that led to a replay of his past? As much as he wanted to figure out all of these questions running amok in his head, his feelings had gained an upper hand in the mean time. Now, he was forced to relive the most painful event in his life, all the anger, the hatred, the fear, the despair, the guilt, broke through the sealed chamber that was his heart. He looked on as a man in a Jounin vest jumped in front of his younger self, hands gripping a kunai and face smeared with blood, yet he was hesitating to kill the child, a kid much the same as any in the village, kids that he, no doubt, had a part in killing and maiming. Yet he was hesitating to kill his younger version.

It disgusted him.

The man was no more than a killer, someone who took life in a single order without a single shred of doubt, who spared no second glance when he sliced through a man's throat. He still remembered the resigned look on his face when he was about to end that man's life; he was no fun. He was prepared to die when the least he could do was scream and beg for his life. But no, he had gripped the side of his charred torso, and smiled, while Yashima Ukon stuck a kunai in his skull, after that going rogue, and planning for a day when he would let Konoha pay for its sins.

His fist uncharacteristically relaxed and tightened in a set rhythm, an act to calm his nerves before his emotions got the better of him, before he would do something he would surely regret. No longer would his emotions dictate his way of living, only the sweet scent of revenge was enough for him now.

And so, he had seen enough, years of experience in the field taking over as soon as the last of his resurfaced feelings was, once again, bottled into the recesses of his soul, his brain had worked out the mental trick that had landed him here in the first place. Dispelling a final single bit of remorse from killing the very man who had saved him and took him in after that dreadful incident, he withdrew two fingers and made a sign, yelling a "Kai!" into the air. Soon enough, the genjutsu broke apart. The silent forest was back in his views.

Though, what he saw next was perhaps what would make him jump in the inside. A blue ball of swirling chakra was only a few meters away from his face, followed closely by the one who had caught him by surprise with an unexpected genjutsu, but that considerate length of distance had bought him enough time to move out of a lethal attack. He forced his previously immobile body to jerk to the left for as quickly as possible, but only when his head had left the strike zone and in entered his right shoulder that the ball of chakra was already slammed hard into it.

Ukon let out a gurgled scream, the searing pain, though sharp and numbing, only lasted a few seconds, as he regained his senses and leapt a good distance away to compose himself, taking time to assess his opponent and his injury. For only an extremely short time of impact, whatever it was that the blond had used had dug deep into his skin; he probably wouldn't be feeling his right hand starting from the next minute, much less use it.

"Tch," the voice in front of him snapped. "I should've known that Genjutsu was too cheap of a trick to stall for time."

Pained obsidian eyes met ferocious oceanic blue ones. The blond brat nearly had him, it left a bitter aftertaste in the nuke nin's mouth. But that, ultimately, still counted as a mistake in his part. He had dwelled longer than needed in his accursed memories, in that petty excuse of a Genjutsu. He had allowed his opponent to almost claim his head. But, that jutsu. Wasn't that…

"I'll get you this time!"

With the loud and straightforward proclamation, the spiky-haired jinchuuriki charged forward again, not before bringing up a familiar hand sign, calling up, not a dozen, not fifty, but most probably nearly hundreds of them, the sea of bright-haired clones flooding the whole clearing around him.

'Shit,' the rogue nin cursed under his breath as he moved off to avoid a near flood of clones coming down onto him, springing off kicks and punches at him that may very well be lethal if received enough of them at once. He kicked one clone across the field and jumped up to a nearby branch, an able hand already rapidly forming hand signs. As a soft thud resounded, evident of one certain ninja landing on a tree branch, he sucked in a substantial amount of air, his left hand forming a ring shape as he blew out the accumulated air into the small hole.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" A giant fire ball engulfed the mass of clones unable to react quickly enough to avoid the searing destruction, some escaped blanketed in flame, while some had small burn wounds. But that was enough for him. Scatter the entire fleet of ants, and a few stray ones couldn't do any higher level of harm to you. That was the basics of the basics in manipulating an unfavorable fighting ground towards one's benefits, and he was ready to show him that, in life-threatening battles, experience _does_ matter.

Just as the smoke in the resulting fireball crashing down onto the field slowly dispersed, the missing nin feeling much more confident in getting his win against the blonde brat, said blond, or blonds, sped through the vision-obstructing mist, the same blue ball of chakra on their hands again. He only had time to pale at the sight before the jutsus came crashing towards him in every angle, barring his back leaning against the bark of the tree. The Rasengans created dents after dents of disfiguring injuries on his torso, drilling into his skin for far longer than necessary, before he was sent crashing towards rows of endless greeneries that stood in the way of his flight path.

"God," Naruto sighed and panted as his clones erupted into smoke, the continuous use of the Fourth's prided technique, coupled with the number of times he had to use it along with his clones, had worn him out, especially his aching chakra coils, but it was worth it if it was to kill that guy, though the order was to capture him alive. Not dead.

For the second time of the day, the smoke concealing the path towards the downed nuke nin had faded much already, allowing him to have clear sight of the, perhaps, mutilated body of his foe. What had shocked him to the depths of his core was, there was no corpse lying at the edge of his vision; there were only pieces of shattered log.

"Kawarimi!" He realized it just a second too late as he spun around in a forced attempt, willing his body to perform an almost impossible immediate evasive maneuver in case of any of the elusive nin's attacks aiming at his back, while his one habitually-used hand came up instinctively to conjure up his most practiced skill in his arsenal, the Rasengan, because he was half expecting the real Yashima Ukon to ambush him from behind at any second now.

Steely obsidian eyes met panicked oceanic blue ones again as the blonde bended his torso around in time to see his opponent, his only able hand gripping a kunai about to perform a horizontal cut across where his central spinal cord was previously located at, only to be forcefully shoved away and embedded deep into the blonde's left shoulder as he jerked his body hard enough for the formed Rasengan on his left hand to smash into the nin's face.

The resulting clash slowed as the jinchuuriki watched in horror and disgust, his jutsu drilling into the face of his target, where the temples in between his eyes was, now a sputtering mess as putrid crimson liquid flew everywhere around them, subsumed by the blood-curdling scream the man let out, before, once again, he was launched off to impact whatever organisms that stood before his path. But this time, Naruto was sure that that wasn't a log anymore; it had felt too real, the impact of his Rasengan onto the flesh and bones of the nuke nin's face, the image chilled his blood and painted his own visage in a sickly hue of green and yellow.

Out of all the times he had effectively slammed his Rasengan into an enemy, never had he actually had the oh so sweet chance to let his gaze linger on the damage done to them, but this one, this one he couldn't ignore; it was right in his face, for god's sake! He always thought it must've hurt, having the spiraling ball of chakra shoved into your skin, but that scene, that sight, it didn't just hurt; that was downright cruel, even for the missing nin.

That was when he noticed it.

"Wait, did I just use a Rasengan with one hand?" He mused out loud, his previous nauseating thoughts disappearing in a blink of an eye, replaced with a much more important discovery. A Rasengan with one hand, for Naruto, it was like keeping himself sane when he was bathed with the Kyuubi's malevolent chakra. Things like these did not occur when one so happens to stumble upon a crisis, it was impossible. Yet, it just happened, and he wasn't about to argue with that logic as long as it kept him alive.

Onto more pressing issues, the kunai remained embedded in his left shoulder, and it stung a lot, but nothing that a few hours of super regenerative ability couldn't heal. He pulled the offending piece of metal out of his flesh with a grunt and threw it aside as he took delicate steps to approach the dead body of Yashima Ukon. He had failed his mission, in a way, for it was to capture him alive, not mutilate his face and walk away. But, he had no other choice in the face of a more powerful adversary. It was either his life or the missing nin's, and he still had so much more he needed to achieve before giving up his current life.

Stopping in front of a tree trunk, where the corpse of his target hung limply at the base of its roots, he almost felt sorry for the guy, his one hand reaching for the dead man's hitai-ate with a cross over the leaf symbol, a sign that he had indeed killed the man. Now that he was done, he couldn't wait to go home. A few bowls of Ramen would certainly be able to soothe his nerves after what he had seen.

With that, he sprinted off to the direction back to the Leaf Village, not even stopping for a short rest at the Village of Wood, as his thoughts were now full of ramen, plans to spend the rest of the day, and surprisingly, his one-sided conversation with a certain blond kunoichi.

* * *

It was probably somewhere between three or four in the evening when his homeland stood just before him, and the two guards that were always on guard duty by the gates, Izumo and Kotetsu waved at him as he passed through. He flashed them his trademark foxy grin, and the duo scratched their cheeks in an awkward smirk as a result from his dazzling smile. In the years that he had left, the hatred held by villagers and shinobi alike had decreased substantially, perhaps due to him not being there for three years as he was trained by Jiraiya the Sannin, the usual hard gazes he received had visibly softened since his return. The same was with Izumo and Kotetsu, who used to be none the more pleasant with the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, now being all warm and welcoming as if he was a long lost brother of theirs.

He had almost felt sick in the stomach from the difference of his past and present treatment. But, now was not the time to dwell on such gloomy topics, he had to report back to Tsunade, go and get some Ramen after that, then he could probably go back home and sulk about the not-so-surprising revelation he had discovered for the millionth time since his return from the training trip.

Leaping up to the roof of a nearby building as soon as the houses and accommodations entered his vision, he wasted no time travelling from rooftop to rooftop to the Hokage office erected at the other side of the village, the kanji for the word 'Fire' labeled proudly and in dignity on the roof of said building for everyone standing in clear view to admire. By the side of the office, rocky paths stretched up to form a high-rising mountain, five familiar faces of distinct powerful beings carved on the rocky edges of the natural structure, another symbol of power of the Leaf Village.

Like his master, or Ero-sennin as he would usually call him, Naruto had picked up a few of his terrible habits, one particularly being entering the office via the window of the room. So, it was to no surprise when the blond knucklehead came through said window with a loud screech of "I'M BACK, BAA-CHAN!" that his face had took a full brunt hit from an empty bottle of sake being flung at him.

"DAMN IT, NARUTO, USE THE DOOR!" Came the old hag's bellow of absolute terror after the ordeal.

In response, Naruto gave her a sheepish smile and scratched at the back of his head, while the other one was massaging his pained red face. It all but occurred only a few seconds before he stepped before the Hokage, all of his previous goofy façade falling from his visage as he sported a much more professional stance, much to the ire of the Hokage herself. It was just so weird seeing Naruto like this, for all she remembered was the blond little sunshine and all his proclamations and bravado.

"Mission failed, Hokage-sama. Target has been intercepted as expected, but exterminated instead of being captured alive." The jinchuuriki extracted a crossed out hitai-ate from his orange-black vest, presenting it to the woman as he placed it gently on the desk, and said no more.

Tsunade nodded her head after a few seconds of contemplation, seeing that there was nothing else the boy had wanted to add, she waved him off, her hands reaching for another bottle of sake on the bottom of the drawer. Great, she mulled, more paperwork regarding the death of that nuke nin now.

* * *

It just so happened to be that Ramen was really the thing he needed the most after the depressing mission, as he recalled wolfing down at least ten bowls of miso pork ramen instead of his initial promise to himself that he would only have three or four. As he unlocked the door to his house and slammed it behind him, he couldn't help but let out another burp of absolute satisfaction, savoring the memories of the heavenly feel of Ramen slithering down his throat, before harsh reality would drag him back and drown him in self hate and pity once more.

Taking a glance at his house, he had noticed that, in his hurry to leave in the morning, he had flung just about everything that was in his way. And by now, his house was a total mess, even by his standards. It seemed like cleaning was in order before he would do anything else in the moment.

Just as he was about to move off to the back of his kitchen to grab his cleaning utensils, himself pondering on where to clean first, for everywhere in his house was considered messy right now, when the raps of flesh against his wooden door resounded through the living room.

Visitors? That was a rarity. Naruto Uzumaki had never really had visitors, with the exception of Sakura or Kakashi who would sometimes come by and spend some time with him. The thought of visitors itself was bewildering to the man, as his brain had automatically dubbed the one behind his door to be either his pink-haired teammate or his silver-haired sensei again, he had swung the door open without hesitation, his brain being too late in realizing that the one in front of him, in fact, didn't have pink hair, nor did she have silver hair at all, but a bright shade of blond.

"Ino?"


End file.
